Senior Art Showcase to Feature Six Central Students

by Emma Zwank

Please Note: Exhibit end date changed to May 9. Slight updates to the art piece descriptions.

Pella, IA (04/14/2025) — Central College's Class of 2025 Senior Art Exhibition will include work from six students. The exhibit will open on Wednesday, April 16, and run through Friday, May 9, in the Mills Gallery, Lubbers Center on Central's campus.

A reception for the artists will be held in the Mills Gallery from noon to 2 p.m. Sunday, April 27. Students will also have their works exhibited during the Celebration of Undergraduate Inquiry, 1-1:50 p.m. Thursday, April 24.

Susan Swanson, associate professor of art, leads the senior seminar class. The following art majors from the Class of 2025 will exhibit their work:

Amelia Brown, art and musical theatre double major from Prairie City, Iowa, shares "Self Made." It employs multimedia sculpture to explore identify and the body as something that is created and can be changed. The sculptures include fabric, yarn, buttons, beads and clay.
Gunner Hutton, art and business management double major from St. Charles, Iowa, is presenting "Family Gathering," a series of hand-built ceramic pieces that fuse vessels with animal forms to recall unique traits of individual family members.
Kaylee Peiffer, art and English double major from Packwood, Iowa, exhibits "Nighttime Bat Stories," and incorporates science and education into handmade and illustrated children's books about bats from Costa Rica.
Emily Shields, art and musical theatre double major from Arden Hills, Minnesota, is presenting "Nurture," a collection of handmade rings. Each ring elevates and preserves natural fragments combined with metal that accentuate the unique qualities of the fragments.
Fynn Wadsworth, art major with English and social justice studies minors from Anamosa, Iowa, whose project "Untitled," draws on his experience as a chronically ill person. His works utilize various textile traditions like crocheting, weaving, embroidery and sewing.

Also exhibiting will be Lauren Husz, Class of 2026 art major with a K-12 endorsement and musical theatre minor from Hampton, Iowa. She is presenting "Solitary Echo," a large-scale painting that explores tensions between isolation and solitude using a vast, textured landscape.

The Mills Gallery, Lubbers Center for the Visual Arts on Central's campus, is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. The gallery curates exhibits throughout the academic year to expand opportunities for students to experience artistic styles and cultural interpretations.

Central College of Pella, Iowa, is a private college known for its active student body, academic rigor and athletics success. Our students learn collaboratively with supportive educators who share a commitment to intellectual engagement, personal growth, career readiness and civic involvement. Founded in 1853 and shaped by its Christian heritage, the college of 1,100 students participates in NCAA Division III athletics and is a member of the American Rivers Conference. Central is an active part of the Greater Des Moines region and just minutes from Lake Red Rock, Iowa's largest lake.